Conventionally, road improvement cannot follow the increase in the traffic volume, due to a delay in the administrative management of a nation or a district government, and traffic jams are becoming a social problem. In particular, near a tollgate of a toll road, vehicles must stop temporarily in order to receive a pass and pay the toll, and hence traffic jams tend to occur.
Therefore, a drive-thru automatic toll collection system (ETC: Electronic Toll Collection System) has been recently developed as a unit which alleviates traffic jams, and has been already experimentally operated in some toll roads. This electronic toll collection system is a system in which tolls are automatically paid by performing radio communication between a non-board machine for the ETC mounted on a vehicle and a roadside radio equipment for the ETC installed at a tollgate. In this electronic toll collection system, it is not necessary for vehicles to stop temporarily at the tollgate, and hence it is considered promising as a unit which effectively alleviates traffic jams.
FIG. 6 is a diagram which explains a summary of a conventional electronic toll collection system. As shown in this figure, the electronic toll collection system is roughly constituted of an ETC on-board machine 2 and an IC (integrated circuit) card 3 mounted on a vehicle 1, and an ETC roadside radio equipment 4 installed at tollgates in toll roads. The ETC on-board machine 2 performs radio communication with the ETC roadside radio equipment 4, by a full duplex communication system using a radio wave in a 5.8 GHz band.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the appearance and construction of the ETC on-board machine 2. The ETC on-board machine 2 shown in this figure is installed on a dashboard of a vehicle 1 (see FIG. 6). A transmission/reception circuit (not shown) is built in a housing 2a. A display 2c which displays the toll or the like of the toll road, an operation button 2e which is pressed by a driver at the time of various operations and a power button 2f which turns on/off the power source are respectively arranged on an operation panel 2b. An IC card insertion slot 2d is also formed on the operation panel 2b, to which the IC card 3 (see FIG. 8) is inserted.
The IC card 3 shown in FIG. 8 comprises a base material 3a and an IC 3b. The base material 3a is formed in a thin plate shape from PVC (vinyl chloride polymer), PVCA (vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate polymer) or the like. The thickness of this base material 3a is 0.76 mm. The IC 3b is formed of a CPU (central processing unit) which controls each section, a non-volatile memory which stores ETC information J and a volatile memory, which are not shown here.
The ETC information J is the information necessary for payment of the toll of the toll road, and comprises deposit information, entrance information, exit information, use amount information and route information. The deposit information is the information comprising the amount deposited in the bank account of a user for payment of tolls of toll roads and the date of deposit. In the example shown in the figure, “1999 Aug. 10 Deposit ¥10,000” is the deposit information. In the electronic toll collection system, the amount of use is automatically deducted from the bank account.
The use amount information is the information comprising tolls of toll roads, the date of use, the balance in the bank account and date of balance inquiry. In the example shown in FIG. 8, “1999 Aug. 11 Amount of use ¥1,500” and “1999 Aug. 13 Amount of use ¥3,000” are the use amount information. The entrance information is the information comprising the name of the entrance (interchange, junction, etc.) of the toll road and the date when the vehicle 1 passes the entrance. In the example shown in the figure, “1999 Aug. 11 Entrance ABC interchange” is the entrance information.
The exit information is the information comprising the name of the exit (interchange, junction, etc.) of the toll road and the date when the vehicle 1 passes the exit. In the example shown in the figure, “1999 Aug. 11 Exit DEF interchange” is the exit information. The names of the exit and entrance are generally names of tollgates in the toll road. The route information is the information showing the traffic route of the vehicle 1.
The above-described IC card 3 is inserted into the card insertion slot 2d (see FIG. 7) of the ETC on-board machine 2 shown in FIG. 6. The ETC on-board machine 2 receives the deposit information, entrance information, route information, exit information, and use amount information via radio waves from the ETC roadside radio equipment 4, and writes these information in the IC card 3. The ETC on-board machine 2 also reads the entrance information and the route information from the IC card 3 and transmits these to the ETC roadside radio equipment 4 via radio waves.
A plurality of ETC roadside radio equipments 4 shown in FIG. 6 is installed at the tollgate of the toll road. That is, the plurality of ETC roadside radio equipments 4 is installed at the entrance and the exit of the toll road. The ETC roadside radio equipment 4 installed at the entrance transmits the above-mentioned route information and entrance information to the vehicle 1 approaching the entrance.
On the other hand, the ETC roadside radio equipment 4 installed at the exit receives the entrance information and the route information from the ETC on-board machine 2, and then transmits the exit information and the use amount information to the ETC on-board machine 2 of the vehicle 1. The amount of use in the use amount information is calculated by a toll calculation computer (not shown) on-line connected with the ETC roadside radio equipment 4, based on the entrance information, route information and exit information.
In the above construction, when the vehicle 1 shown in FIG. 6 approaches an entrance of the toll road, the ETC on-board machine 2 receives the route information and the entrance information from the ETC roadside radio equipment 4 installed at the entrance, and then writes these information in the IC card 3. During this operation, the vehicle 1 passes through the entrance without stopping, and goes down the toll road.
When the vehicle 1 approaches an exit of the toll road, the ETC on-board machine 2 receives the exit information from the ETC roadside radio equipment 4 installed at the exit, and reads the entrance information and the route information from the IC card 3 and then transmits these information to the ETC road side radio equipment 4. Thereby, the ETC roadside radio equipment 4 receives the entrance information and the route information, and transmits the entrance information, the route information and the exit information to the toll calculation computer online.
The toll calculation computer calculates the toll of the toll road for the vehicle 1, based on the entrance information, the route information and the exit information, and automatically deducts the amount of use from the bank account of the user. The toll calculation computer then transmits the amount of use and the balance in the bank account after the deduction as the use amount information to the ETC roadside radio equipment 4 online.
Thereby, the ETC roadside radio equipment 4 transmits the use amount information to the ETC on-board machine 2 of the vehicle 1. The ETC on-board machine 2 receives the use amount information from the ETC roadside radio equipment 4, and writes these in the IC card 3, as well as displaying the amount of use on the display 2c. During this operation, the vehicle 1 passes through the exit without stopping, and goes down the ordinary road (free road).
As described above, the conventional electronic toll collection system allows payment of the toll of the toll road without making the vehicle 1 stop at the entrance and the exit of the toll road, and hence it is excellent as a unit which alleviates traffic jams.
In order to effectively use the electronic toll collection system, it is essential to increase the rate of installation of the ETC on-board machine 2 in all vehicles traveling the toll road. In other words, it is a decisive factor how to encourage owners of ordinary vehicles to install the ETC on-board machine 2, in order to establish this electronic toll collection system as the infrastructure. That is to say, it is important to provide an ETC on-board machine 2 which stimulates buying intention of the user.
Normally, when consumers buy car-related products, they decide whether to buy or not, taking into consideration that it is not expensive, easy to install, easy to use, etc. as the examination items. However, since the electronic toll collection system is in an initial stage of introduction, there is a problem in that the production cost of the ETC on-board machine 2 is high.
Further, it is assumed that the ETC on-board machine 2 is installed on the dashboard of the vehicle. However, since car navigation systems are popular before the introduction of the electronic toll collection system, the display for the car navigation system has already been installed on the dashboard of the vehicle, and there may be no space which installs the ETC on-board machine 2.
As described above, since the ETC on-board machine 2 does not always stimulate the buying intention of users, there are problems heretofore in establishing the electronic toll collection system as the infrastructure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a portable terminal by which users can use the electronic toll collection system at a low cost, and which can establish the electronic toll collection system as the infrastructure.